Lewis Black, John Lasseter Share Their Core Memory Islands at Inside Out Premiere

Everyone was a little emotional Monday afternoon at the L.A. premiere of Disney-Pixar’s “Inside Out” at El Capitan, where a section of Hollywood Boulevard was closed off to create a colorful carnival of the mind ahead of the screening of the film.

Star Amy Poehler, who voices Joy, used her wicked wit as she was swiftly guided along the purple carpet when she was asked if she’d had any imaginary friends: “No, but I have imaginary enemies, and they’re here tonight,” she joked.

“Oh, I love that! We’re going to be Halloween costumes,” said Phyllis Smith, the voice of Sadness, when someone mentioned that they planned to be Sadness for the fall holiday. Smith, who got to work with Poehler in three recording sessions, a rarity in animation voice acting, said of her co-star: “I was a little intimidated because I’d never worked with Amy before, but she put me at ease right away, which was lovely.”

A key component to the film is the little girl’s core memory islands, and Black pondered what his might be: “There’d be the island of Napping, and there’d be Wine Library Island, where I could go through a variety of bottles,” he said. Then, turning introspective, he added, “There’d be Literature Island of books that I really love. And the island of my friends, who are essentially my family.”

Disney-Pixar’s John Lasseter knew right away what one of his core memory islands would be. “My Island of personality, the one that’s never crumbled, it’s only gotten bigger, is cartoons and animation. And it got really big when I realized I could do it for a living. That’s when I realized I never had to grow up,” he said.

Lasseter got particularly emotional when talking about Pixar’s extra full year of 2015. “Two, count ’em two original Pixar films coming out in the same year. How about that?” he enthused. The studio’s other film, “The Good Dinosaur,” comes out November 25. “We’re so excited,” he said of the film, which imagines what the world would be like if dinos never became extinct. “It’s so special. Emotional, funny, beautiful,” but in a different way than stablemate “Inside Out,” he noted.

And he didn’t stop there, hinting at the great things to come in 2016 and beyond. “And then we have ‘Finding Dory,’ which is spectacular. It’s hilarious. Ellen (DeGeneres) is killing it,” he said. “Then you have to wait until 2017 for ‘Toy Story 4,’ which I’m directing.”

(Pictured: Mindy Kaling, director Pete Docter, Lewis Black, Bill Hader, producer Jonas Rivera, Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith at the Los Angeles premiere of Disney-Pixar’s “Inside Out”)

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Martina Birk

Update: 2024-08-18

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